ESR 5 - Sequence controlled functional polymers for targeted drug delivery

The research project of ESR 5 will be devoted to the fabrication of a new generation of glycopolymers with the intention to set the basis for a targeted delivery system for drugs or genes by exploiting the biological interaction between carbohydrates (sugars) and a specific class of proteins called lectins (carbohydrate-binding proteins). 

Glycopolymer research in particular focusses on creating a molecular scaffold of a well-tailored architecture followed by the incorporation of functional sugar groups onto these molecules. Since the design of the scaffold can be directly linked to the binding efficiency of the sugars to the corresponding lectin, one important aim is to manufacture a variety of glycopolymers in order to investigate the structure-property relationships for the carbohydrate-lectin binding events. 

Furthermore, the synthesized glycostructures should exhibit a responsive behaviour, which means the polymers can change their macroscopic properties upon exposure to an external trigger, e.g. temperature or pH-value. More precisely, the molecules are ideally supposed to show the ability to encapsulate a pharmaceutical ingredient and release it once the trigger has been activated. This feature allows researchers to gain control over the timing of the drug release.